“Do not make me pick you up and carry you to the trolley stop, Jemima!”
Jasper looked between them, a flash of impatience in his eyes. His hand moved to the firearm at his side. “Well, you two figure this out. Ray, I’ll be looking around.”
Ray nodded then turned to Jem, tightening his hold. “You go now.” He flung his hand toward LaSalle Street.
“You need me!” She said. “Whither thou goest…or…or…something like that.”
“Whither thou what? No. You are leaving now.”
“Have you had much success in the past telling me what to do?”
“I am trying to communicate.” He hissed. It was hot. Jasper was inside facing heaven knows what. Hedgehog was dead, and they were standing on the precipice of disaster. If Merinda and Benny couldn’t stop the explosives, an entire city might soon be smoking chaos. “I have so little control over what is happening. But I need this one certainty. Do it Jem.”
Jem floundered. Shook her head. Bit her lip. Crossed her arms over herself and tried to match his stubborn glare. “Ray, I am my own person.”
“I know that. But you could get hurt.”
“So could you.”
“Your life is worth more than mine!”
“Not to me.”
“Jemima!”
Jem exhaled. Tapped her foot and looked about her. It was better than staring up at the plain fear on Ray’s face. He wasn’t angry; he was terrified. This wasn’t a marital spat. This wasn’t her testing his will and standing off; this was him staring at her with sheer anguish on his face. She could stand firm or she could make this small sacrifice because she loved him. More than her ideas of independence or her need to be a part of an adventure. This wasn’t weakness if it was borne of her choice to do something for him.
She nodded. “All… all right.”
Relief deflated Ray. He gave her a quick smile and a peck on the cheek and made to say something when Jasper’s voice rang hollow through the corridor inside.
“Ray, you might want to… Ray!”
A shadow filled the doorway. “You said I couldn’t provide for Viola.” Tony was obviously seething with revenge.
“Tony, Hedgehog is dead. Did you… ”
Tony grunted a quick affirmative while looking at Jem. “Convenient that you’re here,” he said, grabbing her arm and tugging her through the door before Ray’s reflexes would allow him to intervene. He dashed in after them.
“Tony!” Ray said to his brother-in-law’s back. “Jem was just on her way. She isn’t a part of this. She doesn’t need to be.”
Tony swiveled, turning Jem with him. “This gun has already killed once today,” he said, pressing it to Jem’s neck.
“We won’t let you get away with it,” Jasper said evenly, summoning a courage he didn’t feel.
“What you are going to do, Constable? Arrest me? In Chicago? With force? Wouldn’t you need backup?”
Jasper removed his gun from the inside of his coat and pointed it at Tony. “This is my backup.”
“You have no intention of firing that,” Tony said, gripping Jem more tightly. Jasper set his face resolutely anyway and kept the weapon still and sure in his hand. Tony cocked his own weapon, and Jem jumped at the sound of the click. Jasper lowered his weapon and looked to Ray with a shrug.
“Tony, you’ve killed a man. Now your prints are identification on that weapon,” Jasper said. “So what do you plan to do? Add another death?
“I want him gone!” He spat in Ray’s direction. “I want Ray out of my life. I want to manage my own family and my own affairs without his getting involved.”
“Then start taking care of your family!” Ray shouted. “Start now, and I will happily stay in Toronto. But I won’t let you starve my sister and nephew.”
“You show up, and I sink lower and lower in her eyes,” Tony confessed, shifting his weight, tightening his grip on Jem’s arm and twisting it behind her back the more upset he got. “I’m not you! She looks up to you. My own little boy will look up to you. It’s been this way since we were kids!”
“I don’t know what you want me to say, but I would prefer not to talk about this while you have that weapon pointed at my Jemima!”
“What do you want with me, Ray?”
“Right now, all I want is her, and you can go to… go to… ” He coughed. “I want you in jail. I want you so far away from my sister that she never hears from you again! That you drift into some phantom memory.” He winced as Jem looked at him helplessly, her eyes pleading with him to do something. “Jasper might want justice, but all I want is you gone. Take the money, leave the corpse. I don’t care. Just give her back, Tony! You don’t need to hurt her like that. She’s not squirming or anything.”
“A trade.”
“Lower your gun and take your filthy hands off Jemima, and I will let you have this entire bank if that’s what you want.”
“But I won’t.” Jasper cut through, while Tony wrung Jem’s arm so tightly she cried out.